The Super Soldier's Lover
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: They were both men out of time, expecting to always be alone due to their jobs and the horrors of their pasts. Cassie Edwin-Stark was an innocent that had been grievously wounded. The well kept hidden cousin of infamous Tony Stark- she never expected to find anyone who could make her feel loved, protected and cherished. A Steve/Bucky/OC.
1. Chapter 1

They had just come home from a bad mission and wanted to spend some down time getting a few drinks and maybe finding themselves a nice gal to spend the night with. So after bathing themselves of the blood, and ash that had caked various places on their bodies.

Their hands, shoulders, hair and faces- and dressing in their nicest tee shirts and button downs with their nicest pair of jeans and shoes. The two finished up by shaving, well, Steve did anyways. And adding their favorite scented colognes and then grabbed their wallets and headed out.

The bar that they were going to was one that was several miles from the Avenger's tower. They had both more or less stumbled onto it by accident one night when they had been unable to sleep and they had taken an instant liking to it and had been frequenting it for the better part of a year.

Upon reaching the bar and entering it, Bucky did an automatic sweep of the inside of the building to see if anyone or anything caught his eye since he and Steve were both very selective in who they tended to pick up and take home with them.

Upon doing his quick sweep of the bar, his eyes landed on a short-ish, black haired young woman at which time he reached out and tapped Steve on the arm to gain his attention and waited until his Stevie gave him his undivided attention before silently pointing the female out to him.

Steve followed the direction of Bucky's finger and subtly studied the dark haired figure over by the old fashioned jukebox, seemingly going through the music.

She didn't seem like the usual type to frequent the bar. In fact thanks to how she was dressed, and looked, she stood out like a sore thumb.

She was short-ish, just enough to suit the two men's tastes. Her long black hair was up in twin ponytails, though when loose it likely would hang near to her waist in length. She had a petite build, delicate, yet wonderfully curvy. Her shirt was a black cotton sleeveless shirt that barely reached her midriff. And she was wearing the most distractingly mouthwatering faded denim cut off shorts that either man had ever seen.

Upon getting a calculated once over from Steve, the tall blond then met Bucky's eye and gave a curt nod of approval and then motioned for Bucky to try approaching her first to gauge how she would react to him. If she reacted favorably to him, then Steve would approach her and see how she reacted to him and then analyze her reaction to the two of them before they would make any true attempts to invite her home with them for the night.

Bucky waited to approach her until she had chosen a song. Unlike most pretty young things of the modern era that the two men had come into contact with, the song chosen wasn't one of those super fast paced ones by those whore-ish singers that they were familiar with.

Brittany Spears, Jennifer Lopez, Rikki Minaj, ect.

No, the song chosen by her was a slow and tasteful one from the eighties. Lonely Heart. Something that was perfect for setting the mood to a first meeting, in Bucky's opinion.

The moment that the song started, Bucky eased himself away from Steve's side as the blond grabbed them both a drink and then walked off to grab a table. Hopefully one with a nice view of the woman where he could carefully watch she and Bucky interact and step in if he noticed that he was needed.

The woman seemed to be off in her own little world as Bucky sidled up behind her and paused for a moment just to study her face since it had been partially hidden by her long dark hair.

It took her a few moments to notice him standing there. Which was fine. He was rather enjoying looking at her.

She had the kind of rare achingly beautiful features that most men would have found..._intimidating_. And to be perfectly honest with himself, if he hadn't have wanted to touch her so damn badly he might have actually scampered away and stayed away.

But tonight he was far too interested in her to really give a damn about anything else at the moment. Steve undoubtedly would have agreed if he had been the first to approach her. But then again Stevie was more of a romantic than he was and would have fallen for the pretty little thing the moment that she batted her light green eyes at him.

Soft green eyes flickered in his direction for a moment and she turned a fetching shade of pink and stepped back a little bit from him with a softly muttered apology. No doubt thinking that she was in the way of him getting to the jukebox.

Like he really gave a shit about the music.

All he cared about at the moment way the hunt. And he had his sights set on her to be his and Stevie's prey.

She stood off to the side of him, looking more than a little bit awkward to him while he took a moment to come up with a plan and dug some change out of his pocket and then took up position in front of the jukebox and found another nice tasteful song and then startled her by snagging her hand and pulling her in close to him and whispered, "Dance with me."

She gave him a wide eyed look for a moment. As if she hadn't expected him to be quite so bold, but nodded her head earning a small smile from him as the song started and he began to slowly dance with her. Using the dance as an opening to draw her in and romance her some.

God knew that if Stevie had approached her first, romancing the gal would have been the first order of business. After all, they had been born to a generation of men that no longer existed. And though they might occasionally indulge in one night stands- it didn't keep either of them from sticking to their old fashioned mannerisms any.

Especially when it made it easier on the gals.

Holding the dame as close as he dared without making her uncomfortable or making her feel as if he'd crossed a line of some sort- he took the time to introduce himself to her in a very polite and gentlemanly fashion. Which seemed to earn him what was called 'brownie points' with her since she also gave him her name in return.

She called herself Cassie Edwin. The last name was probably fake, used as a precautionary measure in case she ran into someone undesirable who didn't want to take 'no' for an answer. This was understandable given how often pretty dames like the one in his arms were so often mugged, raped, kidnapped, abused and victimized.

So he _tried_ not to feel disappointed by the fact that she didn't give him her real last name. Tried of course being the operative word here.

The song ended as Steve finally decided to make his move and Cassie suddenly found herself being passed off to the tall, muscular blond as Bucky took a moment or so to pick another slow song since Stevie couldn't dance for shit and neither one of them wanted to see the dame get her feet stepped on by the clumsy oaf.

Steve flashed Cassie a deceptively shy smile and introduced himself as the next song started. Cassie shot him a somewhat panicked look as Steve carefully took one of her hands in his while his other rested on the small of her back, drawing her petite body in close enough to brush against his own as he danced with her.

Cassie was a good sport about everything, despite the slightly panicked look that she had shot him mere moments before and handled Steve's presence, much like his own, with an amazing amount of grace.

Steve shot him a look over the top of her head when she looked away from him for a moment. A silent indication that he would invite Cassie over to drink with them for a spell. And Bucky found himself nodding in understanding as the song ended and Steve asked her if she would like to join them for a few drinks.

She seemed to mull over the offer, both men finding it somewhat encouraging that she didn't shoot them down outright, before finally nodding. Both men gave her stunning smiles and led her over to a private table where Steve pulled her chair out for her and Bucky handed her one of the small menu's that was usually on the tables so that she could look it over for whatever she wanted to drink.

She gave it a quick once over before hesitantly asking if she could have a long island iced tea. Obviously feeling more comfortable with the alcohol content in it than any of the other drinks offered.

The fact that she wasn't willing to get blackout drunk while with the two was pleasing to them. Bucky ordered her drink and waited until it was delivered before he and Steve bothered to even touch their own drinks as Steve tried to begin a conversation with her.

Starting out with small questions. Like age- she was twenty two. Still very young, even by their standards. What was her favorite color? She didn't have just one. She had a whole multitude of colors that she liked. And was very specific about each one. What perfume was she wearing tonight? Even Bucky had wondered about that when he had danced with her earlier, he had been able to smell the floral scent of it. But it was unlike anything else that he'd ever smelled. Which was somewhat puzzling to him.

I mean didn't gals her age generally go for the weirdly overpowering and funky smelling shit?

Her response was surprising to them to say the least. Apparently she had made her own perfume out of peonies, white lilies, hyacinth, honeysuckle and pear blossom. Which explained why she smelled so damned good. But neither man could stop wondering if she tasted as good as she smelled.

After that, Steve asked her if she was a student- turns out that she wasn't. Which was sort of shocking considering her age. But then college wasn't really for everyone.

Bucky asked her what kind of work she did and was pleasantly surprised to find out that she was a artist and a published writer. Apparently she dabbled in a bit of everything. Poetry, sci-fi, supernatural, thrillers, children's books, even raunchy romances as well as how to books for other artists.

To say that Steve was wanted then and there to keep her would be a gross understatement.

Stevie loved artists. L-o-v-e _loved_ them. The more creative they were, the more he was like a kid in a candy store and the more he tended to pick their brains for his own creative and artistic pursuits.

The three sat there and drank together and made small talk for the better part of an hour or so before Steve finally asked if she wanted to come home with them for the night.

The question must have startled her a bit, because she balked for a moment before asking what their expectations were. They took a few minutes to tell her what she would be agreeing to if she was interested, and then sat back and waited for her to make a decision.

She chewed her bottom lip nervously as she weighed the pro's and con's before finally relenting.

Steve leaned over the table and gave her a slow drugging kiss as Bucky watched from his seat, his fingers clenching and unclenching in his lap as he tried to kill the urge to simply grab her, toss her over his shoulder and walk out of the bar just so that he could find them someplace more private so that he could touch her.

Steve pulled back from the kiss after several moments, leaving her stunned by the hunger she had felt in it as he slowly stood up and Bucky helped her out of her chair since she looked like she wouldn't be able to so much as walk right at the moment.

Her whole body was trembling underneath his palm as he slipped an arm around her shoulders and gently pulled her against his side before making his way towards the door with Steve right on his heels.


	2. Chapter 2

The trip back to the tower was a quiet one filled with hungry kisses from the two men and carefully calculated touches and caresses. Just enough to leave Cassie wanting more without managing to overwhelm her and scare the little dame off.

The moment that they were back in the tower, the two herded Cassie into the nearest elevator where Bucky backed her up against the wall and framed her face in his hands, tilting her head back so that he could attack her neck with his mouth.

She let out a soft gasp at the contact of his lips against her throat and fisted a hand in his shirt as he took his sweet time nipping, and gently biting and suckling at her tender flesh as his hands ghosted over the bare skin of her arms before then moving to settle on the exposed skin of her stomach where he absently stroked her with his fingertips.

When the elevator finally came to a stop and the door opened, Steve grabbed him by the back of the shirt and tugged him away from her so that they could all get off of the elevator and go to their room.

Since he and Steve were a package deal- with a lot of the same problems, the two shared a bedroom. Curtesy of Tony and his generous nature.

So the moment that they all entered their home, the two took a moment to get rid of their wallets and shoes. Giving Cassie a moment or so to look around the place before Steve quickly scooped her up in his arms and smiled at her when she made a small squeaking sound as he carried her into the bedroom and gently laid her on the bed and then moved away to sit off to the side.

Contrary to what most tended to think due to his personality, Stevie wasn't such a boy scout that he didn't find certain fetishes nice to indulge in. Sharing women with Bucky was just one fetish he had. Another was watching. He got off on it. He loved nothing more than watching Bucky expertly work over some sweet little thing before he took his own turn.

However tonight he instead staying on the side, he decided to change things up a little bit and sat himself down at the head of the bed and let Bucky adjust where Cassie was lying on the bed by moving her up until her head lay on Steve's leg so that he could watch her facial expressions while Bucky fucked her.

Anticipation alight in Steve's sapphire eyes, as Bucky tugged Cassie's clothing off one piece at a time and then tossed each article of clothing off to the side before he stripped himself. During which time Steve took a few seconds to look Cassie over.

She wasn't looking at him or Bucky. Something that he found somewhat strange, yet didn't have the heart to call her out on it as he ran his fingers along the pale curve of one of her shoulders before frowning upon seeing a very old, very faint scar. It was faded and almost unnoticeable in the light of the room. And it would have been invisible in the dim light of the bar.

The scar looked as if it had come from a very sharp, very long, serrated blade.

Tracing it with his fingertips, he couldn't help but notice the way that she flinched ever so slightly underneath his hand. Bucky must have noticed too, because one moment he was hot and ready to go and the next- he had pushed all feelings of arousal aside and was carefully studying the scar before asking softly, "That's a nasty injury doll. You got more of them?"

Cassie didn't answer him so Bucky decided to look her over himself. His hands and fingers trailing over every bit of exposed skin that he'd bared and found several other old injuries. He found a small one along her jugular, another one between her breasts that looked as if she had been stabbed there a long, long time ago. He found three more along her left side- right in between her ribs.

Steve found two on the inside of her wrists while Bucky managed to find three more. One along her navel, another on the inside of one of her thighs, and the last one along the back of one of her ankles where her achilles tendon was located.

Once they were both finished looking the two men exchanged a look before Steve asked. "How'd you get these scars, sweetheart?"

"I'd really rather not talk about it." Cassie said very quietly.

"All right doll. We won't talk about it again for now." Steve said as Bucky slowly nodded his head, both men understanding that some things were simply too painful to talk to anyone about. But it didn't mean that they were simply going to let it go.

Not when their protective instincts were suddenly being riled.

Cassie started to feel uneasy because no one was doing anything and shifted her body slightly so that she could sit up, feeling that the mood must have been ruined. "Um...m-maybe I should go-" She muttered as she looked around for a second for her clothes when Bucky reached out and grabbed her around the waist and settled her astride his hips and placed a tender kiss on her lips.

"Don't leave doll. We didn't mean to make you uncomfortable." Bucky said, hoping to coax back the hunger and heat that she'd felt before.

"S'okay."

"Good. Stevie and I will make it up to you."

* * *

Hours later-

Steve and Bucky lay in the bed with Cassie carefully tucked in between them sleeping soundly as the two quietly talked in hushed tones.

"She's so small and fragile Stevie."

"Yeah she is."

"I don't like the idea of never seeing her again after this." Bucky said as he brushed a few silken strands of her hair back from her face with his metal hand.

"What are you saying Bucky?" Steve asked curiously.

"S-She's something special Steve. I can see it. Hell I can fucking _feel_ it. She's the kind that a man keeps." Steve made a soft thoughtful humming sound as he considered Bucky's words for a moment before then asking,

"Are you saying that you want to pursue a relationship with her?"

"I-I want us both too. I mean think about it- we've been together for the better part of almost ninety something years. Even when we were apart, we were incomplete. We both still feel that way, even now. It's why we go out and pick dames up. We're looking for something or more specifically, _someone_. I think Cassie could be that someone." Bucky said as he watched Steve's expression for any hint of what he may be thinking.

He was shocked a bit. Startled, by the admission, certainly. However his eyes...the way that they lit up with understanding as he looked down at the woman before he glanced back at Bucky and gave him a jerky nod, was unmistakable.

"Okay, we'll see about mentioning a relationship with her tomorrow over breakfast and see what she thinks. Maybe go out first thing and grab some flowers and stuff."

"Dames love flowers." Bucky said in a drowsy tone as he started to doze off. Completely missing Steve's softly spoken agreement. Dames _loved_ flowers. And any gal of theirs would quickly find herself swimming in the damned things. But it would be totally worth it in the long run.

At least Steve hoped it would be worth it. He didn't think he'd like it if Bucky's heart got broken. Much less his own. He thought as he curled his body around Cassie's in an comfortable position where his arm rested over her waist and her head was carefully tucked up underneath his chin. And simply let his mind drift a bit as he planned out tomorrow's breakfast until he somehow managed to doze off himself.


	3. Chapter 3

**You guy's don't know it but I wrote and re wrote the first chap of this story more than ten times. I now have ten very different versions of this story. And I'm running out of room to write.**

* * *

The next morning, Steve and Bucky were awake before dawn, and carefully slipped form the bed to go and get things ready for breakfast with Cassie. Now it was the first time in a long, long time that the two were planning to actually commit themselves to someone else and bring that person into their relationship.

So they knew that they needed to tread carefully. After all both knew that just because she hadn't had an aversion to sleeping with them both didn't necessarily mean that she would be comfortable enough to take part of a romantic relationship with them.

Though both of their spirits seemed to be fairly high that Cassie wouldn't say no.

Bucky had waited until Steve was done running his errand before he bothered to even go out to go get some flowers. He wouldn't have felt right about disappearing to go get flowers and leaving Cassie alone. So when he told Steve that he would be the one to go get the flowers- Stevie merely nodded as Bucky tried to think of what to get once he was at the floral shop. He was thinking of something with red tulips, lavender, lilies and...something else. But he didn't know what really went with those particular flowers but he was determined to figure it out.

He had a lady to impress after all.

And once he was ready to go, Steve met him at the door and just handed over his credit card and let Bucky go. He recognized enough about his childhood friend's actions to know that he was a man on a self imposed mission.

Failure wasn't an option for them and neither would take failure very gracefully.

They were fully prepared to sic Natasha on Cassie if they had too.

Once Bucky was gone, Steve went to check on Cassie for a moment and set down a bag full of clothing that he'd gone out and bought for her earlier so that she could shower and change into something clean if she wanted too. He'd even grabbed her some feminine items while he had been out earlier. A toothbrush, some scented lotion, deodorant, makeup- not a lot but some- a razor to shave with, a brush, some shampoo and conditioner and even some new stuff to style her hair with.

Clips, barrettes, some nice pretty satin ribbons to match one of the shirts that he'd bought for her to wear with her new shorts or pants.

Once he was finished placing the bag next to the bed where she could easily find it, he silently crept out of the bedroom to go and start preparing the food. He was going to fix french toast, bacon, fruit- strawberries, peaches, oranges, blue berries and banana's- with some fresh apple, or orange juice. Or milk.

Whatever Cassie wanted.

Bucky was gone for almost an hour before finally coming back home with the flowers he'd so painstakingly chosen. And not a moment too soon either. Steve had heard Cassie moving around in the bedroom for the past few minutes and knew that she was either getting dressed or getting ready to shower and change into what he'd bought.

He wasn't sure which until she peeked out of the bedroom and looked around before finally noticing them. Curious to know what she was doing, Steve had Bucky take his place in the kitchen watching the food to keep it from burning while he went to investigate what their gal was doing.

He caught her as she was pulling one of her shoes on. She froze up and got this deer in the headlights look on her face as he leaned his shoulder against the doorframe and eyed her curiously. Taking note of the fact that she hadn't even touched the bag of clean clothing that he'd bought for her with a small frown.

"What are you doing?" He asked before he could stop himself from voicing his question.

"I-I was just going to go."

"Why? Bucky and I are fixing breakfast for all of us. Plus I got you some clean clothing to change into if you wanted to grab a shower."

She frowned at him as she sighed and muttered, "O-Oh. I just didn't know if I should stay or not and didn't really want to overstay my welcome."

"You're fine doll," He assured her before then saying, "Go ahead and take a shower. Breakfast should be done by the time you come back out." As he walked over to where he'd set the bag earlier and picked it up and handed it to her. She looked from him to the bag with another small frown as she chewed her bottom lip for a second before quietly nodding her head meekly and then turned and padded over to the bathroom and quietly disappeared inside.

* * *

Cassie didn't know what to think much less how to react to her current situation. True she had never really indulged in one night stands before. Especially with two men at once. But she was fairly certain that being given a bag of brand new clothing and feminine items wasn't one of the social norms for such situations.

In fact, she was pretty sure that almost everything about her current situation was...well_ questionable_.

Sighing again she sat down on the bathroom floor and went through the bag, pulling out the razor and setting it aside since she didn't really need it.

The hair under her arms, legs and even her pubic hair had been laser removed about eight years ago after she had been kidnapped and- shaking her head as if to clear it, she tried not to think about the painful experiences that had occurred before her cousin Tony had come and saved her.

She'd been in a bad way. A really bad way.

Starved, beaten, drugged and raped multiple times by more men than she could recall. She had been left for dead in a dingy rat infested cell located in the middle of nowhere when Tony had somehow managed to locate her after finding her kidnapper and beating him nearly to death.

She hadn't been aware of just how long they had had her. Merely that the days and nights of endless torment had stretched out for what seemed like forever. Forever that had in reality been only six months.

Six months and yet the damage had been done.

Tony had tried to help her. God had he tried. Since the day that he'd found her broken form in her cell, he had been practically attached to her at the hip. And for a while things had started to get better. But once she finally gave the authorities the names of some of the men that had hurt her and they had needed her to testify in court- things had gone to shit again.

She had practically been called a whore by the defense attorney while on the stand. And just to mess with her credibility- the man had somehow managed to get a hold of some videos that she hadn't been aware of and showed them in court.

She had practically been crucified by everyone and dismissed as a character witness because the videos had been misleading. She had been so sickened and ashamed that after that, she had simply up and left New York without a word. Feeling that she needed a fresh start far away to help her heal.

But the real truth is that nothing could really heal her.

Irreparable damage had been to her body, her heart and her soul. And she was still trying to find herself again. She had come back to New York again three years ago, finally deciding that she could no longer run from her past. That if she were ever really going to heal at all, then she needed to face it head on.

Sighing again once she was finished going through the bag, she set the clean clothing that she had picked out to wear aside. Deciding on the cream and pastel pink and green long sleeved shirt and the skinny jeans.

Once that was done, she grabbed the shampoo and conditioner and found herself a fluffy towel and then turned her attention to the shower and turned on the tap and then undressed while she waited for the water to get warm before stepping under the spray and quietly closing the curtain.

Washing herself didn't take half as long as it once did. Washing her hair aside that was. And once out of the shower, she sat herself down on the edge of the bath tub and wrung out her hair and then slowly towel dried herself off and then got re dressed in the clean clothing and then looked at herself in the mirror.

She had no idea how Steve had managed it, but somehow he had gotten the right sized clothing for her. The shirt was loose fitting, which was something that she appreciated since most of her clothing tended to be baggy anyways. The pants were a perfect fit too. Not too loose and not too tight.

They hugged her hips and her long slender legs perfectly without being uncomfortable.

Next she made quick used of the brush that Steve had bought for her as well as one of the ribbons to tie back the top part of her hair back from her face before then brushing her teeth and finishing up by collecting everything and placing it back in the bag again before slipping back out of the bathroom.


	4. Chapter 4

Steve didn't bother leaving the bedroom after Cassie disappeared into the bathroom to freshen up and change. He was somewhat curious about what was going through her head right then, so instead he simply sat himself down on the bed and closed his eyes and used his enhanced senses to track her movements and actions.

She spent several minutes just sitting somewhere on the floor over by the tub. And at least five more to go through the bag of stuff that he'd bought for her. To figure out what all was in it and what she decided to use, maybe? After that she spent another ten minutes in the actual shower- he could hear the water running and the curtain being slowly pulled closed.

Frowning a little bit when the water finally turned off, he wondered what all she had done while she was under the spray. She didn't spend near enough time in the water to have actually cleaned herself well. Had she? He wondered as he listened to the sounds of fabric rustling as she dressed herself followed by the faint other sounds that came with a woman taking care of her appearance.

He could hear her when she brushed her hair and decided on a ribbon to use in it, and even the sounds of her tooth brush being put to use. So maybe he was wrong about her not cleaning herself well?

Once she was done brushing her teeth, she set the tooth brush somewhere in the bag along with everything else and then opened the bathroom door and stepped out only to pause for a second when she noticed him sitting there.

Steve slowly opened his eyes and looked at her. A small appreciative smile curving his lips as he took in her appearance. She had been lovely the night before, but in the light of day- she looked like the goddess of love and beauty to him.

"You look nice." He said quietly as she fidgeted nervously under the scrutiny of his sapphire stare.

"Thanks. I-If you still have the receipt for the stuff then I'll pay you back-"

"There's no need for you to do that sweetheart."

"B-But-" Cassie started to say that the clothing, makeup, lotion, razor and other items must have been somewhat expensive. She didn't like that he'd gone to so much trouble for her however she was cut off abruptly when he suddenly stood up and in what seemed like the blink of an eye to her, was up in her personal space.

One of his hands reaching up so that he could run his knuckles along the curve of her cheek before he leaned down a bit and placed a chaste kiss on her forehead and then moved away.

Leaving her with all kinds of conflicting emotions that left her pouting as he walked out of the bedroom door and called out to her, "Looks like the food is done. Come eat something with us."

_Why do I feel like I'm about to get ambushed?_ Cassie wondered to herself as she as she tentatively began to follow the blond out of the bedroom and suddenly stopped barely a foot or so from the bedroom as she saw Bucky trying to light some small candles on the food and _flower_ laden table just off to the side of the kitchen and thought drearily, _Yup. Just as I thought. They're planning to ambush me._

Steve rushed over to Bucky and quietly whispered that candles were for special occasions only, trying to quietly convince Bucky that breakfast wasn't exactly 'special occasion' material before Cassie could make her appearance.

But Bucky decided to be stubborn and merely snapped at him that breakfast with Cassie _was_ to be considered a special occasion and he needed to get the hell out of his way before he decided to set something else on fire before looking pointedly at Steve's shirt.

Causing the already nervous blond to put his hands up in surrender and automatically take several small steps back away from Bucky before he could actually make any kind of move to follow through with his threat.

After all, Bucky setting fire to his shirts both while he was wearing them and while he was pissed was the number one cause of his quickly dwindling shirt pile. It was also the leading cause for Tony's near constant complaining and Steve's more frequent shopping trips to the local clothing stores to buy all new shirts for Bucky to burn.

Although he should simply take his lighter away from him. It wasn't like he needed his best friend to become some deranged kind of arsonist.

Cassie watched the two curiously for several moments before then letting her gaze flicker to the door of their apartment and wondered to herself if she could manage to get away with sneaking out. She doubted it. But she couldn't help but wonder anyways.

Despite knowing the odds were against her and that one or both of them could easily run her down and drag her back here kicking and screaming.

"Sweetheart," Steve's voice cut through her thoughts of escaping like a knife, causing her to shift her attention back towards him only to find the tall blond standing only a couple of feet from her, looking at her oddly as he said. "Why don't you come and have a seat. Bucky and I will wait until you've picked out what you want to eat and put it on your plate before we start fixing our own."

She huffed quietly and looked towards the door again, not caring that Steve would notice the look and might get upset by it before she then brushed by him and walked over to the table and started to grab a chair to sit in when Bucky moved up behind her and pulled her chair out for her with a grin.

Frowning at the action because it seemed to be so damn unfamiliar because she wasn't used to being treated in such a way she mumbled a quiet 'thanks' and then sat down and let him push her chair in for her as she looked over the food. Everything looked and smelled wonderful, but even she knew better than to eat too much.

If she didn't eat more than one meal every day or so (with snacks every so often in between drinking protein shakes off and on) she would make herself ill. Especially since she didn't have her prescription meds on her to help her manage to _not_ get sick if she ate. So after looking everything over for a moment, she decided on eating some fruit and put some on her plate.

It was enough to keep her from being terribly hungry, but not quite enough to be a complete meal. Which meant that if the two weren't terribly upset by her choosing the fruit over everything else, she might be able to talk them into letting her take some french toast home with her for a late brunch or something after she took her medicines.

"Is that all you're going to eat doll?" Bucky asked her with a small frown as she sat back in her seat after serving herself and tried to resist the urge to squirm under the unblinking stare's of both of the men.

"Y-Yeah, for now." She replied before cast a glance at the two to try and gauge whether or not they were angry at her. Swearing to herself that the moment either of them raised their voices to her- she was fucking gone. However neither man seemed so upset by her admittance that they were going to raise their voices at her.

Instead Steve simply asked her if she had an upset stomach or something. She mulled his question over before slowly shaking her head and simply saying that she couldn't eat much until after she got home to take her medicine's or she'd get sick.

This seemed to make both men somewhat curious since the next few questions were along the lines of, 'Have you got an eating disorder?' and 'What are the medicines for?' to 'Have you seen a doctor about the problem?' and then finally 'Will you tell us a little bit about what you need the medicines for?'

All of the questions were asked politely, but even she could sense the carefully concealed demand in the words. It was like hearing velvet over iron. The words were so deceptively softly spoken that the demand was hard to notice at first unless you just happened to be listening for it.

And despite her best judgement she found herself complying and rattling off her medical conditions, "Anxiety/panic attacks, PTSD, depression, epilepsy, insomnia, and I have trouble holding food down without specific medicine to help me due to..._damages_ done to me when I was in my teens."

"W-What kind of damages?" Steve asked, seeming to stumble over his words a little bit as he and Bucky looked her over as if trying to magically figure out what she meant.

"I was in the...care of some really...cruel people for about a four months. And went from weighing a healthy one hundred and twenty pounds to barely weighing sixty in under a month." She said as she lowered her eyes to her plate and left them there, not wanting to see the looks of disgust that would cross either man's face while she tried to push back the sudden and very unwanted urge to cry and nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt a hand slip around one of her own and looked up to find Steve kneeling next to her chair.

His large hand holding hers carefully as his blue eyes searched her face for something that she couldn't quite place while Bucky got up and moved to the kitchen for several minutes and then came back and set a tall glass of what looked to be a chocolate flavored protein drink down next to her before saying in a slightly shaky tone, "Whoever did that to you deserves to fry in hell, doll. Eat what you can and drink the shake and we'll fix something for you to take home later."

"You were eying the french toast so I'm guessing that you wanted some of it but was worried that you'd make yourself sick if you tried eating it now." Steve said.

It wasn't a question. Merely an observation on his part.

Cassie merely nodded her head and Steve gave her hand a slight squeeze before slowly getting to his feet again and looking at Bucky and saying, "I'll dig out some Tupperware." And then mouthed the words,_ Stay with her._ Before disappearing into the kitchen.


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry- my new meds have been making me sick as a dog so I've been working in between that.**

* * *

While Steve was taking a moment to get his anger under control and dig through the cabinets for some tupperware, Bucky was watching Cassie _carefully _just in case she decided to have an anxiety attack or something. His mind trying to wrap around what kind of sick fucks would do such a horrific thing to such a sweet little gal like her.

I mean, who in their right mind did something like that to a mere kid?

Animals in human skin that's who. And right now he was trying his damndest to control his own anger and rage by pretending that he knew each and every one of them, and had their names and addresses so that he could go and kill every single one of them for hurting her.

Cassie wasn't looking at him. Which was another thing that rankled him especially since it was easy to see that she was upset by her earlier admission. And Bucky couldn't help but wonder just how long ago the incident had taken place.

Steve came back several moments later with some Tupperware in hand and quickly fixed four pieces of french toast, a few pieces of bacon and some extra fruit for her to take home with her and then sat the containers down on the table next to her plate, causing her to look up at him.

"Here you go sweetheart. I don't care how you manage to do it. I just want you to eat everything that you can, when you can okay." He kept his tone gentle and soothing knowing that she likely wouldn't appreciate it if he raised his voice any. Especially when she had done nothing to deserve such a reaction from him.

She gave him a slightly strained smile and promised to do as he said one way or another as the blond retook his seat and the two of them quietly fixed their own plates before they then sat back and Bucky asked her if she said grace or anything before she ate.

She shook her head no, though it was on the tip of her tongue to say something like, "Why bother praying to something that isn't there?" However held her tongue and simply said that she was an atheist and then tacked on that if either of them felt the need to say grace then it was fine.

It wasn't like it would hurt her sensibilities any. Nor was it like their prayer would cause her to burst into flames or anything. So no harm, no foul right.

The two exchanged a look but didn't say anything more about it and instead simply tucked into their food before Steve asked, "So...um did you have a good time with us last night Cassie?"

Cassie merely nodded her head since her mouth was full at the moment, earning her a charming smile from the blond before he took a bite of his french toast leaving Bucky time to ask his own question.

"What kind of work do you do again?"

"I write mostly. And make things in my down time."

"Like your perfume?"

"Yeah. Something like that."

"Are you working on anything right now?"

"No. Not at the moment. I just finished five different manuscripts and sent them in for publication."

_"F-Five?"_ Bucky almost squeaked as Steve choked a little bit on his latest bite of food until the brunette reached over and thumped him on the back a few times.

"Yeah."

"W-What kind of manuscripts were they?"

"Three romances, one really,_ really_ long horror that one of my publisher's is trying to have turned into a movie, and a children's book that is part of an ongoing series."

"Oh. Well, they sound neat."

"Four of them are. The fifth however was over sixty eight thousand pages of sheer absolute _hell_." Both men made a funny, strained snickering sound that quickly morphed into outright laughter as she laid her head on the table and simply gave them a dreadful look.

"Oh doll, it couldn't have been that bad." Bucky said in between breaths as he slowly seemed to calm down, whereas Steve- the shit- was still laughing. Softer than he initially had, mind you. But he was still laughing at her all the same.

"I had to re write several chapters to cover plot holes and twists nineteen times. _Nineteen_ you jerks! That isn't anything little by any definition. Especially when some of those chapters were over_ three hundred_ or more pages long each."

Steve finally stopped laughing long enough to do some math in his head and let out a low whistle of appreciation. _Damn_ their gal had to be one hell of a brilliant writer to even half assed manage something like that.

Color him impressed.

And despite the fact that Bucky had been raised by wolves, he could tell that he was pretty impressed too. Steve could tell by the look on his face as he studied Cassie's face before she muttered, "And that's without the other nineteen manuscripts that are ready to be sent in for printing..."

The two blinked at her for a second before Bucky stammered out, "W-W-Why do you have so many manuscripts?"

"I get into these weird creative down spirals where all I do is work. I forget to eat. Forget to sleep. Don't leave my home for months... If I need or want anything I place orders over the net to have stuff brought to me. Which suits me just fine. I hate leaving my den for long."

"Den?"

"Oh yeah, it's something that my cousin got me into as a kid whenever he'd come and visit. He'd bring a really big empty barrel or big empty box and set it up in my work room to act sort of like a club house so that when I needed a break I could just crawl inside and hang out and rest without going outside."

"Doesn't sound like it's very healthy for you to stay cooped up all the time." Steve said.

Cassie made a soft humming sound before saying in a drowsy tone, "Reminds me of my mom and grand parents- so I don't mind it much."

"You sound as if you're about to go back to sleep on us doll."

She made another humming sound and a few moments later, her breathing evened out and she was asleep again. At which point Steve sighed and turned to Bucky and said, "This isn't how I imagined asking her to be our girlfriend would go."

Bucky merely snickered at the aggrieved look on Stevie's face before chirping, "What are you talking about? I think our talk is going great. See watch- Cassie, stay asleep if you wanna be our girl." A heartbeat or so passed and he stuffed some food in his mouth and grinned around it as he said, "See? She loves us!"

At which point Steve wadded up his napkin and threw it at him, hitting him in the face with it as he hissed out. "Savage." As he slowly got out of his seat and carefully collected Cassie from hers and then carried her back into the bedroom to sleep for a bit longer since she seemed to be so damned tired that she couldn't even get through a conversation with them.

Once he had her back in bed and tucked her in, he decided to find her wallet and see if he could find her state ID or something with a current address so that he could send Bucky to her place to collect some of her things for her since they weren't going to let her leave them without at least talking about the possibility of their future together.


End file.
